BtVS 2.04 Inca Mummy Girl
P@rick
Good question Oz. And I bet you'd never guess... oh, I was talking about
that 500 year-dead Inca princess who did some exchanging with an
exchange student. Oz, of course, was talking about that cuter-than-legal
Eskimo girl that is Willow. I like Oz's fine taste in women!
Which is not something I can say about Xander. Save for Buffy, his taste
generally sucks. Oh, Nathalie "I pray before I bite the head off my
lover's neck" French was a looker alright. Ampata wasn't really my
taste, but she certainly wasn't ugly. It's just that the women of his
choice are inclined to either kill him or his best friends.
This time Xander kept a level head and saved Willow from a certain kiss
of death. After all she is his best friend. Which is lucky for her, but
also unfortunate since this means that he doesn't think about her lips
in a kissing fashion. Good to have that cleared up. Now Willow can be on
her way to a guy that actually notices her beauty and charms. As for
example Oz.
More open hearted confessions appeared between Xander and Buffy. They
now know that they're not destined for each other. Or do they? Xander at
least feels comfortable enough to admit to Buffy that he fancies her.
And Buffy didn't deny Willow's statement that Xander never stood a
chance with her. But they're just good friends now. Their last
conversation spoke volumes in that respect.
That's what I liked a lot about this episode: the interaction between
the characters, directly or indirectly. The cast was in really good
shape this ep (aren't they always?). I loved how Willow swallowed her
pride and told Xander to take Ampata to the dance. I loved how Buffy
first 'convinced' Giles to let her go to the dance and when those plans
got cancelled reluctantly yet dutifully helped Giles to find and stop
the mummy.
Speaking of the mummy, she was very quick to catch on with the American
language. Maybe she sucked that right out of her victims as well. For a
mummy she was very well preserved considering the way she was exposed to
the environmental conditions in the museum. And why was she even alive?
Okay, they buried her alive (and she looked mighty comfortable
considering that fact) but she must have died after some time. I take it
they cursed her in some way.
She was a chosen one, just like Buffy. She was chosen to die, whereas
Buffy was chosen to kill (and to die according to the erroneous
prophecy). And it's Buffy who ends up killing the other chosen one,
this time for good. Ampata wasn't chosen to kill, yet it was the only
way for her to live. And killing makes out a big part of Buffy's life as
well, whether she likes it or not. It's safe to say that vampires and
demons will die when Buffy does her job, and innocent victims will die
if she doesn't. There are a lot of nice parallels to be drawn here.
Ampata didn't choose for this life. She had to kill to keep going, and
she didn't really mind doing that. And in the end she was even willing
to kill Xander. Well you can't expect morally perfect behaviour from a
girl who was buried alive when she was sixteen years young. Very tragic,
but the writer's had to give her some sort of an evil side (remorseless
killing to stay alive, in the end even the one she loves) in order for
Buffy to rightfully kill her. And well, she didn't really kill her as
much as tearing her away from Xander a bit too hard. Ampata was already
dying.
I wonder what the Sunnydale coroner makes out of all these corpses that
keep showing up. Like a badly burned but obviously sown together Daryl
in SAR, and some mummyfied corpses in this ep. It's just as well that
vampires turn to dust when they meet the stake.
A very enjoyable episode, with lots of humor and great interaction. But
now I'd like to see more of Spike and Dru please.
Bye, Patrick
--
Keeper of the Willowism, "And I'm eating this banana. Lunchtime be
damned!"
Keeper of the Wily Willow Charms
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